The modules were broken down into clear, informative parts for the lay person. We all make assumptions about terms such as ‘Modern Slavery’ ‘Trafficking’ ‘Exploitation’. The misconception is this goes on in hidden areas – not in our circles. However, key industries these issues have been found in include hospitality, fishing, factory work, food processing, leaflet delivery, tarmac, paving, agriculture, cannabis farms (these are in residential houses), domestic servitude, sex industry and criminal gangs – ATM thefts etc.

In 2000 the UN met in Palermo, Italy to agree three protocols. Clearly 18 years later, the problem is still there. So learning some possible signs and what agencies to involve has got to be a good thing. Knowledge is power after all.

Learning about the tools used by traffickers, including religious beliefs, has been an eye opener. Equally understanding and supporting someone who has experienced any kind of trauma/abuse can be misunderstood as lying due to not always being able to recall events easily or in the right order. We must remember trauma interferes with this process – people aren’t always lying.

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Wed, 14 Feb 2018 22:05:18 +0000dilsbloghttps://dilsblog.wordpress.com/go/events/human-trafficking-and-modern-slavery-focus-on-scotland/On 23 March 2018, UN House Scotland will be hosting a conference and a series of workshops as a part of their ‘See me, free me” efforts. The conference, entitled ‘Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery in Scotland: Raising Awareness – Strengthening Collaboration – Breaking the Chains’ is open to the public, and will focus on the impacts, causes, and prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery in Scotland.

The conference and workshops will be attended and will feature experts, MSPs, NGOs and private sector advocates, among others. The conference and workshops will occur at Scottish Parliament with the sponsorship of MSP Christina McKelvie.

Tickets for this event are currently sold out. To be added to the waitlist, please email UN Scotland at hello@unhscotland.org.uk

Today, there are 40 million slaves in the world—more than at any other point in history. And modern slavery is more insidious and covert than it was in the past, with victims working in sweatshops, nail salons and massage parlors, hiding in plain sight.

In the U.K. alone, there are at least 13,000 slaves and victims of human trafficking, a figure described as merely the “tip of the iceberg” by the National Crime Agency.

How can this be? We have more international anti-slavery legislation in place than ever before. We have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Slavery Convention. And in September 2017, 37 United Nations members states endorsed a “Call to Action” to end modern slavery and people trafficking by 2030.

Individual countries also outline their own policies towards slavery. The U.K.’s Modern Slavery Act 2015, for instance, forces multi-national companies to publish anti-slavery and human trafficking statements. The Act even established an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to lead the country’s effort to tackle modern slavery and promote best practices in detecting human trafficking.

Nevertheless, human traffickers are managing to circumvent these anti-slavery policies and laws more effectively than ever before. Why? Because these laws are not supported by international coalitions. All the anti-slavery regulations in the world will be useless unless states work in partnership to implement them.

And since human trafficking is largely a global and cross-border issue, international cooperation needs to start at “ground zero”—the victims’ countries of origin. But because slaves come from so many different places, this will not be easy. In a U.K. study conducted in 2016, for example, people identified as potential victims came from 108 different countries. This means that in order to prevent trafficking in the first place, we need a collaborative, global strategy between the countries with slaves and the victims’ countries of origin.

In practice, countries like the U.K. will need to develop collaborative and targeted prevention projects that examine the root causes of slavery. They will also need to work with regional organizations to engage communities and raise awareness about the people trafficking occurring in their neighborhoods. Domestically, governments can help prevent trafficking by training border control staff to better identify potential victims.

But a lack of international cooperation isn’t the only reason for the surge in the number of slaves worldwide. Just like slavery in the 16th and 17th centuries, modern slavery is fueled in part by uncontrolled capitalism. Private sector businesses account for the “employment” of 16 million people around the world who are actually victims of forced labor and people trafficking. And the majority of them are women and children.

Put simply, the western world’s demand for cheap clothing, coffee, or the latest iPhone relies on a system in which workers are paid incredibly low wages so consumers can get a good deal. Many well-known companies, including Nestle and H&M to name a few, rely on cheap labor abroad where employment law is laxer—and where working conditions can often be classified as forced or child labor. The mining of cobalt and coltan—the raw materials used in the manufacturing of mobile phones and computers—for example, is rife with conflict and exploitation.

For anti-slavery foreign policy to be effective under these conditions, states and regulatory bodies should require that the supply chains of multi-national be transparent and slavery-free. Consumers, in turn, can choose to buy Fairtrade only and, in effect, force companies to give their workers a fair wage and decent working conditions.

But in reality, it’s not that straightforward. Trends suggest that western consumers are reluctant to confront this uncomfortable feature of modern life. For instance, it’s common knowledge that cheap clothing is often made in sweatshops, yet we continue to buy it.

That’s why, in the absence of a consumer-led movement, we need more than platitudes from our governments to know they are committed to ending slavery.

The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery that British Prime Minister Theresa May mentioned last September aims to put a stop to slavery by forging international partnerships and raising crucial financial resources. Nonetheless, the success of a private, independent fund will be limited without sustained cooperation from state governments or public support. And right now, these prospects look bleak.

In the midst of Brexit negotiations, the U.K., for one, is turning inward. What’s more, the economic impact of Brexit may be severe, and the U.K.’s National Health Service is struggling, which means the public is unlikely to support the diversion of national funds to build relationships abroad.

May and other global leaders promise to end modern slavery by 2030, but are they willing to take the difficult yet necessary steps to make it happen? Will they adapt their economic frameworks and build anti-slavery partnerships abroad? And are they and their citizens willing to overlook a great bargain to serve 40 million individuals in need?

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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 06:31:33 +0000The Broken Chain Bloghttps://thebrokenchainblog.com/go/uncategorized/how-do-i-report-human-trafficking/There may be one or more times during our life when we encounter a situation that resembles a possible human trafficking situation. How do we report it? It is important to remember that human trafficking case reports are welcomed by the organizations listed, as well as by your local law enforcement. You may be the only hope a victim has for being found and assisted.

There are several options for reporting cases. A few of them are discussed below.

Homeland Security offers a phone number for potential witnesses to report cases through. They refer victims to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Homeland security connects trafficked victims with services to help them through the recovery process. However, if the victim is not a U.S. citizen, only short-term assistance (Continued Presence) and visas (U visas and T visas) are offered, and this assistance is only offered “to encourage victims to come forward and work with law enforcement”.

Reporter information: Call 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (1-866-347-2423) (available 24/7), or fill out form at www.ice.gov/tips.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline(NHTH) runs a toll-free service for witnesses and victims. NHTH does not require callers to identify themselves, however cases will be reported to authorities if they believe a caller or a minor is in danger. NHTH is not law enforcement, therefore they will only pass the report along to the appropriate department of the appropriate agency for whatever kind of case the report is about.

Reporter information: 1-888-373-7888

Victim information: Contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733).

An online tip form can also be filled out by witnesses or victims at the link provided above.

Please take potential human trafficking cases seriously. Observe without interfering, (if at all possible), and report.

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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 05:49:36 +0000Professor Roger Burritthttps://rogerburritt.wordpress.com/go/accounting/current-perceptions-on-the-problem-of-modern-slavery-in-business/https://thebrokenchainblog.com/go/uncategorized/what-is-human-trafficking/
Sun, 11 Feb 2018 06:07:39 +0000The Broken Chain Bloghttps://thebrokenchainblog.com/go/uncategorized/what-is-human-trafficking/Human trafficking is the exploitation of people through various means. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime provides a detailed definition of human trafficking. They write, human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring [sic] or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”.

Simply put, human trafficking occurs when a victim is exploited by a trafficker who is using their power over the victim in a way that controls the victim’s activities. Generally, human trafficking is executed through sex trafficking, labor trafficking, or organ trafficking.

Human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery, often brings to mind a picture of a person who is bound by chains to their post. However, trafficking, as explained by the definition above, can often be much subtler than popular images of slavery. Often there are no actual chains involved, physical chains that is… There is always something that is keeping the victim in the trafficking situation, whether it be psychological (manipulation, deception, forceful persuasion, threats), physical (addiction, force), cultural (cultural norms), relational (children), as well as the lack of other options for survival.

It is important to note that a victim of human trafficking may not be aware they are in fact involved in trafficking. Many times, victims are persuaded they are doing what they want, without realizing their exploited states.

Spoken by George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist, about 1863. It seems Americans have forgotten the tragic lessons of slavery in America — perpetuated by Southern Democrats. While America is criticized for this stain on her honor, only 1% of Americans actually owned slaves. It was a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who put an end to this horrific and degrading treatment of human beings.

Today, Democrats lead the fight to protect Illegal Immigrants in America. Why? They want cheap labor. Slavery is prohibited, but Democrats will offer shelter to poor, homeless, starving people if they will do the work Americans do not want to do. They even join with the WORST Republican president in our lifetime, George W Bush, to enslave desperate people.

Posted on a Democrat’s Facebook page. Made me ANGRY!

George W Bush proves some Americans are horrible people. He claims Americans will not work under such conditions — so we find some poor, starving, homeless and scared people — and FORCE them to do the work for us.

I DO NOT SAYThank You to MODERN SLAVERY!!!

Shame on George W Bush! Shame on Democrats! Democrats clearly DO NOT care about people. They want to return slavery to America — just as they did in the 18th century. Remember, it took Republicans to stop Democrats in 1860. History now repeats!!!

Do unto others as you want them to do unto you!

I do not ask ANY human being to do work I am unwilling to do. I am an AmeriCAN — not a slave holder!!!

I came back from abroad and I saw the critical situation at home. My mom was being a victim of covert aggressive manipulators. I felt devastated by what I saw, how her spirit had been broken, how she did not feel like her own self, how she did not know who she was anymore. She had become the puppet of covert aggressive manipulators.

All started all so well! The Wulffs were our friends, from the beginning on (1992). They came to Zimbabwe and this is how they came to know my family. First arrived Heinrich and then he was followed by his then wife Babe. They befriended my mom and father, they got to know me and Linda was born and they also got to know her.

They returned to Germany in 1996. The friendship to my family still continued and my mom visited them as often as she could and they visited us as often as they could. Not knowing that they had focused on us to be their children, their family property. Heinrich focus was on the children and Babe focus was on our mom (lover).

It was an obvious but difficult situation to slowly but diligently take us away from the environment we were used to. My mother was in an abusive relationship with my father. She was struggling to juggle all the circumstances together: raising children in a deteriorating economy and a physically violent husband, which you could not run away from because the culture did not allow it.

For a person who was convinced that he wanted to have us as children, this was the perfect combination to convince this suffering mother, that a brighter future exist for her and her children in Germany. Surely, it did. And it can be seen as the most kindest act one can dedicate himself of doing. If you are a normal person.

If you are not a normal person and you are a covert aggressive manipulator, well the pure intention is to:

appear as the savior of a poor African family, thus create a good image for yourself

have them under your control and by no means let them go – OWN them

The third point started the drama. It all began in 2010, when I decided to move out. Had I know the intentions of the Wulffs from the beginning had I seen it coming. As it is, covert aggressive manipulators wants to keep everything under their control. The fact that I was moving out was a sign to Heinrich that he was not under control. In his mind I was his property. My moving away meant to him that I was rejecting him and his “rights” to dominance. Does this ring a bell – slavery! Modern slavery! In Germany!

Anyway, being the independent and strong person I am, I moved out. I started my studies, but this caused a lot of havoc in his head. A lot of anger because of the rejection. The ones to pay at that moment were my mom and Linda.

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Thu, 08 Feb 2018 06:48:01 +0000cinnabar50https://rantingsfromavirtualsoapbox.wordpress.com/go/human-rights/end-modern-slavery/“Slavery was abolished 150 years ago, right? While it is true that slavery is illegal almost everywhere on earth, the fact is there are more slaves today than there ever were…”
Robert Alan Silverstein

Millions of our fellow human beings continue to live as contemporary slaves, victims of abominable practices like human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Countless children are forced to become soldiers, work in sweat shops or are sold by desperate families. Women are brutalized and traded like commodities. Entire households and villages labour under debt bondage.
Ban Ki-moon

We all tend to think that slavery is a thing of the past, a grave social injustice consigned to history. Unfortunately slavery still thrives ruining the lives of those exploited for their labour. Worldwide it is estimated that there are 40.3 million people used as slave Labour including 10 million children – and not just overseas either, but right here in the UK , USA and other western countries.

In nearly every country worldwide millions of vulnerable people are forced into working for little or no pay, coerced to do so as a result of threats, debt, and violence.

Slavery in the modern world has many guises:

Agriculture, domestic work, factories and women forced into prostitution. Many of the goods we buy are produced by child slaves in sweatshops. 15.4 million people are enslaved by forced marriage. Vulnerable people include the poverty stricken and people discriminated by race or gender. As you will read further down, slavery presents in prisons, particularly in the US where mostly non whites are exploited as slave or cheap labour.

What is most sickening about it is that under Trump as usual the unjust situation is set to get worse as Increases of prisons and detainment centers by upwards of 450%, are planned perpetuating and embedding a system that exploits mostly non whites for private benefit.

It has come to light that the immigrants detained in a private facility, CoreCivic, are being coerced into forced labour, threatened with solitary confinement or restricted visitation rights if they do not comply. While some detainees are paid a very low wage of just $1.50 per day many get no pay at all for working a variety of jobs that really should be undertaken by an employee for a fair living wage, for example kitchen staff, janitors, barbers and various other positions. It is real profit spinner of course for this private facility who save a huge amount on its employee bill .

Housing 25 percent of the world’s prison population the USA has the largest prison system globally upon which it spends a huge $80 billion per year. During the past four decades the prison population has risen by 700 percent, however crime has decreased. Sixty percent of prisoners are non white with black men six times more likely to be imprisoned than whites.

Basically detainees are being exploited through forced labor in prisons and detention centers for corporate gain.

Even though most people think that slavery only exists overseas, modern slavery in the UK is thriving. The British Government estimates that tens of thousands of people are in exploited in modern slavery in the UK today.

10 things you didn’t know about slavery in the UK

The UK Government estimates there are tens of thousands people in slavery in Britain today

Only 1% of enslaved people in the UK have the chance of seeing their exploiter brought to justice

In 2015, over 3,000 people, including nearly 1,000 children, were referred to British authorities as potential victims of slavery

But nearly 40% of them were still awaiting a decision about their victim status at the end of the year

From those who have received a final decision, only less than half were recognised as victims

Victims of slavery are four times less likely to be acknowledged as victims if they are non-European

Up to 34% of victims of slavery are estimated to be re-trafficked

Children are often deliberately targeted for their vulnerability

One in four victims of slavery in the UK is a child

2016 saw the first conviction and sentencing of a British businessman for human trafficking

“Libyan’s are keeping black Africans captive and using them for human trafficking, this completely goes against any human rights. We are one race, the human race. Those involved with the dealing of people need to be scrutinised and stopped. First world countries need to intervene as soon as possible it is an URGENT AND SERIOUS ISSUE!!!! ”https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-modern-day-slavery

Slavery Libya

End Modern Slavery in Libya

“Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) expressed interest in investigating crimes against immigrants in Libya, after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned about people being sold at slave markets in the country.

Slave markets are springing up across Libya trading impoverished African migrants who have arrived on the Mediterranean coast dreaming of a new life in Europe. A new investigation has revealed people are being sold as modern-day slaves for as little as £300 ($400).”

I am profoundly shocked concerning the exploitation of vulnerable people, such grave social injustice has no place in any ethical progressive society. I fail to understand the mindset of those who exploit others in the name of personal gain, or in other words rampant greed. Life is short, it is precious to all of us and should be lived as much as possible in the way we wish to live. No one should have the right to enslave another, an anachronism of a bygone age many assume which unfortunately is thriving.

Back in the nineteenth century, the United States of America was among the last countries to abolish slavery, but even though it took a bitter civil war to bring it about, slavery was officially abolished there when Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31st, 1865.

Unfortunately, slavery did not end everywhere, and indeed still exists today. Despite the article in the United Nations 1948 Declaration of Human Rights which states: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,” there are still millions of slaves in the world, including some in countries where it was officially abolished over two centuries ago.

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Wed, 24 Jan 2018 17:52:04 +0000unchainedjourneyshttps://unchainedjourneys.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/unseasonal-generosity/‘Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox: that the birth of a homeless person should be celebrated in every home’.

I was surprised to come across this Chesterton quote in a shopping centre in the heart of São Paulo, on Paulista Avenue, otherwise known as the financial centre of Brazil. It’s a profound paradox of a street, where the most important financial activities in the country take place inside buildings that seem to touch the sky, whilst outside the ground is lined with homeless people with not a penny to their name. This paradox Chesterton describes goes beyond the epidemic of homelessness, to the global refugee crisis. References to Jesus’ status as a refugee during his childhood on the run from King Herod are common in the Christmas period. However, as we draw towards the end of January (already?!), it’s essential we remember that this is an ongoing reality which remains urgent all year round.

At Christmas, photos of snow back in the UK made me feel even more nostalgic as I was melting in the heat here in Brazil, where wooly scarves, snuggly blankets and comforting hot chocolates are currently out of the question – but there’s a dark side to the cold I’ve been craving.

Stories of homeless people dying in harsh weather are commonplace – even in Brazil – and since the refugee camp in Calais was demolished with no provisions made for the people living inside it, refugees were left with no option but to sleep on the streets and in the woods. As a result, the population of the Dunkirk refugee camp doubled – only for the camp to burn to the ground in April last year. There are around 1,500 refugees sleeping rough in northern France. Macron’s promise that no refugee would spend winter outside has apparently been broken spectacularly.

This photo, from Help Refugees (the UK’s leading NGO working with refugees), pierced me to the core. The common Brazilian reality of homelessness is taken and sprinkled with snow in France of all places, reflecting the plight of people who have been utterly failed by a society which should certainly do better.

Living conditions for refugees in Calais

France is a developed country which has incomparably less structural problems than Brazil, and yet it is failing its most vulnerable population miserably in scenes reminiscent of Les Misérables, which depicts the reality of some 200 years ago – incidentally, a reality serving as the backdrop for violent revolution. In spite of my love for France, and its credentials as the nation of liberté, égalité, fraternité, sadly I’m not particularly surprised. One of my most distinct memories of visiting Lyon in 2013 is of passing a makeshift camp on the edge of the city, populated by the marginalised Roma community.

It’s important to point out that the UK’s response to the crisis warrants a whole other post – I did write one last year, and the approach I lamented doesn’t seem to have much improved. Macron just agreed a deal with Theresa May whereby the UK will contribute a further £45 million to preventing migrants crossing the Channel, including with more fences and CCTV. Since the demolition of the refugee camp last year, ‘the UK has spent over £160 million on security and policing in Calais’, which amounts to ‘funding the same police force that illegally tear gasses and abuses young people and illegally confiscates personal belongings every day’. Meanwhile, despite the UK government’s supposed commitment to fighting modern slavery, there is no one being funded to investigate trafficking and exploitation, a common fate for refugees and migrants. Allocating funding in this way means charities have to fulfil people’s most basic rights.

Nonetheless, the UK has promised to speed up asylum applications of those with a right to refuge in the UK, such as family reunion cases; I sincerely hope that this aspect of the deal leads to concrete change, and that my scepticism is proved wrong. A few days later, Amber Rudd also conceded over the Dubs Amendment regarding child refugees; the remaining 260 places will be filled as soon as possible, with children from France, Greece and Italy – a victory after two years of fierce campaigning. The failure of both governments to deal with the crisis thus-far has resulted in worsening conditions and increasing desperation, reflected by the deaths of three asylum-seekers in three weeks on the roads in Calais – including a 15-year-old who was waiting to join his brother in London. Two more are in intensive care, including one who lost his legs when he was hit by a train. As a coordinator in Calais unflinchingly puts it, ‘this government’s red tape is red with blood’.

A couple of nights into 2018, I had a dream that I was on a boat of refugees which had just been rescued by the Italian coastguard. What I remember most acutely from the dream isn’t the fear, but how it felt to hear the coastguards complaining about “all these people coming here”. A couple of weeks later I had a dream I was in the midst of a war – the fear being what struck me most this time. I’m not saying this is actually the attitude of the Italian coastguard, but both dreams made me reflect on how unspeakably awful it must be to flee unimaginable atrocities, only to arrive somewhere that should be safe and be rejected by those who should welcome you.

When I first volunteered with Compassiva in 2016, the Brazilian NGO I’m now with long-term, I spoke to some Syrian refugees who said they chose to come here rather than Europe because they didn’t want to go somewhere they weren’t welcome. It seems that this Europe the scaremongers consider too attractive to the undesirables has earned itself another kind of reputation.

Awareness campaign by Compassiva with UNHCR and Cáritas, another São Paulo charity

A couple of days after my first dream, I heard the news that a dinghy carrying refugees from Libya (where refugees are sold like cattle in modern-day slave markets) had sunk off the coast of Italy. 64 people died, and a further 86 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard – including a three-year-old girl whose mother drowned. It was a stark reminder of the ongoing crisis, and the need for seasonal generosity to continue into January and beyond – whether this takes the form of donating to NGOs, or putting pressure on governments to take responsibility.

It would be wonderful if our Prime Minister, so ready to identify as a Christian and refer to her upbringing as a vicar’s daughter, could remember that for Christians, celebrating Christmas is pointless unless we seek justice (throughout the year, not just during the season of goodwill). This is certainly not a goal I’ve seen played out in government policy regarding refugees, and the irony is compounded by the fact that Jesus himself started life as one.

Isaiah is a book full of God’s pleas for justice and rejection of religious hypocrisy: ‘Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies […] Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow’. (Isaiah 1: 13-17).

This idea is echoed by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. […] Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’. (Matthew 25: 35-40).

Christians believe that we are saved by faith, not works. However, James writes ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? How can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead’. (James 2: 14-17). This doesn’t mean works save us, but it means we must question whether our faith is real if it doesn’t naturally translate into action seeking the justice that is demanded time and time again throughout the Bible.

Fortunately, it’s not hard for us to seek justice in small ways.

Help Refugees is a brilliant charity to donate to. In their words, ‘whilst the governments of the UK & France spend their huge budget on fencing and CCTV, please help us provide people with the basics they need to survive this winter’.

To make your donation more personal you can take a look at Choose Love. It’s a wonderful world-first charity shop, run by Help Refugees, where instead of buying old things for yourself, you buy new things for refugees. Products start at just £3, and a pair of child’s boots or a child’s coat will put you back just two or three coffees out – a small price to keep a child warm.

If you want to get more involved, or get your hands into the dough as they would say in Portuguese, you could consider volunteering with Help Refugees in the UK, crossing the Channel into France to volunteer in Calais, or even go as far as Greece or Serbia.

If you have a spare room, you could take things even further and sign up to welcome a refugee into your home through Refugees at Home. As UNHCR puts it: ‘More than a year after the drowning of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi, thousands of people have come together to bridge cultural divides and language barriers, embracing compassion, hope and humanity – even as some European governments continue to build obstacles‘.

If you’d like to donate to Compassiva, the charity I’m working with in Brazil (they serve vulnerable people in the local community as well as mostly Syrian refugees), the website is currently being redeveloped, but please do contact me to sort something.

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Mon, 22 Jan 2018 01:29:21 +0000eja03https://wherehislightis.wordpress.com/go/blog/stories-of-dressember-enyo/During December, I decided to challenge myself to wear a dress for the month and join the Dressember campaign. The whole point of the campaign is to raise awareness about human trafficking and modern-day slavery and raise money for 2 incredible charities: IJM and A21.

Whilst that time is now over, I thought it would be nice to re-share a post I wrote during Dressember, to share more behind my heart for freedom. I hope you enjoy it and are challenged by it!

What does freedom mean to me? That is a question I have been asking myself for a long time. At one time, it simply looked like being free to do as I pleased. Freedom was something I expected to have. Sure, there were certain discriminatory forces which meant that as a young, black immigrant woman, I didn’t have quite the same access to freedom as the “majority”. But I was free enough. I had the freedom of choice – at least within the limits of the law – to do as I pleased. I had the freedom to receive an education. The freedom to live where I pleased. To eat what I wanted, wear what I wanted and freely practice my faith. I was free to vote and free to work.For all intents and purposes, I was free to be whoever and whatever I wanted to be.

I don’t know at what age I started to notice that not everyone had the same level of liberties as me, but notice I did.

I started to realize my privilege of being raised in a country which had built its society on the philosophy of ‘Democracy’ and deemed that “all human beings are inherently entitled to be free…” (UDHR 1948).

My time in Abuja, Nigeria in 2012 marked one key moment in my life where I realized that, despite our best efforts, many human beings were not living with the freedom they were entitled to, but were in fact slaves. There, I volunteered at an NGO called WOTCLEF, an organization working with women and children who had been abused, abandoned, trafficked and enslaved. It was there that I met the children who would forever mark and change my life.

In a short time, I realized the very real capacity of humans to be cruel and inhumane to their fellow man – to even their own family and children. I saw how external push factors such as extreme poverty, lack of education and low employment, led to desperation and fear. The autonomy we so easily disregard in the West was stripped from these people. Due to these external factors, people became easy prey for the vile predators who would come in, often in the guise of a saviour, selling a dream of a better life and eventually, manipulating people into a lifetime of slavery.

I often hear people carelessly make comments such as: “Well how could people be so stupid to believe a stranger offering them a pipe dream? Obviously, it’s a scam! It’s their own fault.” To this, I reply with a sunken heart: every human being dreams of a better life, but how much more must the ones with nothing but their hope left?

In fact, it is often upon a dream that freedom has been reached throughout history. Suffragettes dreamt of equality for women. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt to one day see an end to racism. The list goes on. The men, women, and children who are ensnared in modern-day slavery also have a dream. One that shouldn’t be seen as far-fetched because it is a dream that has been established in much of the world as entirely valid – the dream to not live in abject poverty. To be able to go to school. To be able to get a job and provide for your family. To live your life and be whoever and whatever you want to be. To be free.

It’s a pretty simple thing to dream. It’s something that has long been deemed the inherent right of every human being.

And for those who cannot control their circumstances or the evil people who have deceived them, it is sadly what has led them to slavery. But for those of us with the control and power to create and affect change, it is a dream we can stand on and defend. Until one day when that same dream will lead a multitude of people, who were once victims, to freedom.

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Sun, 21 Jan 2018 20:14:11 +0000blogging4funsitehttps://blogging4funsite.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/education-is-key/Is education the key to being set free from slavery? Was learning to read the key for Fredrick Douglass to finally be free from slavery? Although the term “knowledge is power” may be seen as trite, it has always been and continues to be true. Even today, one can see the influence and importance that education has. In essence, it can be said that education is the key to bettering oneself as it opens doors and offers numerous opportunities. A text in which one can see this idea in play is the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself. This firsthand account shows an individual who rose from a slave having nothing to to a free man via the help of his education. By reading through its narration and its sequence of events, one can see how Douglass’s initial thirst for freedom stemmed from a thirst for knowledge which eventually provided him with the strength necessary to escape from his enslavement.

He was even frustrated at the fact that he didn’t even know his own birthday. As Douglass explains, his lack for this type of seemingly basic, personal information “was a source of great unhappiness to me even during childhood” as he struggled to figure out why all the white children knew their ages and why he should be “deprived of the same privilege”. His thirst for knowledge only intensified when his mistress went on to teach him his ABC’s. Unfortunately, these lessons were soon prohibited by her husband, Mr. Auld, who claimed that “learning would spoil the best nigger in world…It [learning to read] would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it would do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy”. Unfortunately for Mr. Auld, although these statements did put a stop to the lessons, they also drastically augmented Douglass’s desire to continue with his learning as he then saw the connection between his learning and a chance for freedom. “…I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at what ever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.” (pg 43).

Although Douglass was no longer having formal instruction of any sort, he remained determined to learn to read and used any method he could to do so. Eventually, with the help of the poor white children (with whom he would exchange bread for knowledge) he succeeded in learning to read. Thanks to his ability to read, transitioned his thirst for learning into a thirst for freedom. Douglass found himself able to finally voice and argue the thoughts that had been dwelling in his mind about the injustice of his personal situation and slavery itself. Unfortunately, although this new knowledge and comprehension “relieved [Douglass] of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which [he] was relieved” as he grew to “abhor and detest [his] en-slavers”.Douglass learned that with knowledge comes truth and, as his own truth being that of a “wretched condition,” he sometimes considered learning to read a curse rather than a blessing. In the end, through his daily struggle’s, these new ideas and passions instilled in him a notion that he wasn’t likely to forget and was convinced to achieve what he truly desired: freedom.

]]>https://kooldude15.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/slavery/
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:57:56 +0000kooldude15https://kooldude15.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/slavery/ “Anyone can do that,” “That’s so easy!” “Because you suck,” “Because you’re black.” I have wondered about why people make others inferior. More specifically, why do slave owners feed the need the make themselves superior to other slaves both in modern slavery and in slavery of the United States before the civil war. Also, I am to comprehend about the difference between slave owners making themselves superior and friends making themselves superior over one another.

An excerpt from the ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (NOTLOFD),’ a book about Frederick Douglass, a black slave in America in the 1800s: “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master–to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world…” In this quote, Mr Auld, Frederick Douglass’ slave owner, makes himself superior to his slave by not allowing him to learn how to read or write. Mr. Auld’s reason for making himself superior is, “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” He explains to the person who taught Frederick Douglass how to read and write of how he is only a slave because he is inferior, black, and uneducated. It’s simple; the slave owner makes himself superior in order to threaten and scare the slaves to keep them in their control.

In an article about modern slavery that occurred around the years of 1997 to 2000, similar to the case in NOTLOFD, slave owners make their slaves inferior for a clear reason.A modern-day victim of human trafficking, Ima Matul, arrived in the U.S., and the woman she had agreed to work for had taken her passport. Then, she did not get paid, worked against her own will, and did not do anything about it as she did not know how to speak English. The captors of Matul picked her from a foreign country making her an inferior subordinate from the beginning. In this instance, the captors made themselves superior by giving false threats to Matul. Not being able to do anything, Matul patiently waited until she was able to scrape enough English to ask a nearby neighbor for assistance. It wasn’t until Matul wrote a cry for help in English that she could escape; it wasn’t until she learnt English to fight to be on an equivalent level. If the captors did not make Matul an inferior person from the very beginning, she would’ve easily escaped earlier, and so the reason why the captors made themselves superior is obvious.

On the other hand, friends tell each other things, “you suck!” “garbage,” and “you’re so dumb,” very often. Friends make themselves superior to each other all the time. I think the main difference between this and the instances in slavery are the actions. Slave owners beat and whipped Frederick Douglass and the captors restricted and threatened Ima Matul while friends usually taunt and tease, and usually, it’s to each other; it’s not one-sided. Even though friends make themselves superior to each other, it’s like a friendly competition, it’s more of making yourself better instead of controlling and restricting others. What friends do are not morally wrong in my perspective. On the contrary, what victimizers of human trafficking do are.

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Wed, 17 Jan 2018 22:11:09 +0000Imran Rahman-Joneshttps://irahmanjones.com/go/bbc-newsbeat/modern-slavery-nail-salons-using-trafficked-individuals/There’s a warning that workers in your local nail bar could be victims of human trafficking.

It’s not as simple as saying that all cheap nail bars exploit their staff, so it’s important to be able to recognise those that do.

Born to a desperately poor family in rural Nepal, Alina was just five years old when she was forced to work as a maid in her village. She endured long hours of hard labor without breaks, and was physically and verbally abused. She received no schooling.

When Alina turned 11, a neighbor lured her into work as a “waitress” in one of Kathmandu’s dance bars. For five years she was sexually exploited by customers there, during which time her employer withheld her wages, and regularly beat her.

Alina — not her real name — is safe now, thanks to the efforts of a local NGO. But this level of extreme exploitation is far too common around the world.

Every day across the globe, millions of women and girls are used, controlled and exploited for commercial or personal gain. They are trafficked into the sex industry, kept in servitude as domestic workers in private homes, forced to work in exploitative conditions in factories and bonded into agricultural labor. They suffer terrible violence and are denied their basic rights and freedoms.

Heightened risk of slavery

In many countries, the simple fact of being female creates a heightened risk of falling into slavery. Pervasive gender discrimination means that girls are marginalized, treated as second-class citizens within their communities and viewed as an economic burden by their families.

Many are forced to drop out of school early and sent to work in exploitative conditions, or are married off against their will. Women are more likely than men to seek work in unregulated and informal sectors where they are vulnerable to abuse, violence and exploitation. All of these factors contribute to women and girls making up some 70% of the world’s 40 million people in slavery.

Globally, more research is needed on the most effective frontline strategies to address the gender dimensions of slavery. In an effort to contribute to this knowledge, my organization, the Freedom Fund has published a new report, “Her freedom, her voice,” drawing on insights from its last four years working in countries with a high burden of slavery.

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Wed, 10 Jan 2018 21:35:19 +0000bensbeathttps://bensbeat.com/go/hip-hoprap-reviews/travis-scott-quavo-huncho-jack-jack-huncho/In yet another rap collab that dropped as 2017 came to a close, not to be upstaged by fellow Migos member Offset, Quavo recruits a kindred spirit in Travis Scott for a solid but unsurprising effort. The two stick to exactly what they know and exactly what they’ve been doing for the rest of the year, and since they are more similar in terms of artistry than many collaborative projects over the course of the year, it seems like the album doesn’t have much to offer that we haven’t already heard before.

While I personally wanted to hear more bars and less mumbled, autotuned crooning that the two have become known for, Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho shows two artists who are as understanding of their audience as they possibly could be, delivering a select few great moments in a sea of mediocrity.

The project opens with its most immediately catchy song in “Modern Slavery”, which features a more energetic trap beat than most of the generic offerings on the rest of the project and features Quavo “shaking his demons off” and then “dipping his dreams in sauce”. The shorter length of the track, as well as the multiple delays on the project, makes me think that the logistics of the project did not come together as well as most, since this album basically exists solely due to internet hype on Twitter. I wish it had gone on for longer.

The only features on the project come from fellow Migos members Takeoff and Offset, and it really speaks volumes to how well Migos work as a trio, since the distinct voices they bring to their respective tracks really breaks up the monotony here. Scott and Quavo are almost indistinguishable here, not playing off of each other at all or complementing each others’ strengths because they essentially do very similar things on each track.

The tracks “Dubai Sh*t” and “Best Man” stand out as well, the former demonstrating the quotable, goofier side of their respective rap personas (if you can ignore the similarities to Drake’s More Life highlight “Gyalchester”) while the album closer “Best Man” offers something a little different from the trap sensibilities and rhythmic adherence to rather straightforward beats. The collaborators express their brotherhood and tell some stories of their early friendship over Young Thug producer Wheezy’s more spacey, ambient beat that accommodates their melodies better.

Scott and Quavo’s more freeform, flowing style doesn’t contrast as well with more dynamic beats, since almost all of the energy of the track is lost when a beat calms down due to the rappers not explicitly sticking to a solid rhythmic pattern. While there is certainly appeal in the style, as evidenced by the two rappers’ enormous popularity, after a slew of collaborative projects that only served to amplify artistic aspects that weren’t as prominent on solo work, the safe approach to this project didn’t sit as well with me. Too much of the project sounds like an amalgamation of just about every track Travis and Quavo appeared on over the course of 2017, using the same flows, same beats, same adlibs and same lyrical content and even some of the same punchlines.

Quavo’s voice is the hip-hop universal solvent at this point, and Travis Scott at his most energetic can be truly invigorating, but it is clear that there wasn’t a high degree of effort put into this project, not wanting to delay its release to 2018. There are certainly moments to enjoy here – these two have exploded into the public eye recently as they continue to shape exactly what modern hip-hop sounds like, and this can be partially credited to the strength of their prolific collaborations – but usually, their presence is a welcome juxtaposition and different perspective to a track by someone with a completely different approach. These artists aren’t as one-dimensional as this project makes them seem.

Well, I managed to watch the first 35 minutes of the whole 58 minute dreary video, dreary not due to the statistics presented, but due to the insufferable conviction of Pinker, a much spoiled man who is isolated from the world and its real problems, that humanity is so much better off now that it has ever been, and that, O, we are so much more enlightened than our predecessors. What insufferable cheek.

His biggest error in logic (and he claims to be a man of reason!) is his constant use of percentages in an invalid manner, which leads him to false conclusions. If you look at a graph of world population historically, the world population is almost always rising, but the rise in population starting early in the 20th century has been exponential. Therefore, when he compares a percentage statistic of violence in an earlier era to a percentage statistic in the 20th or 21st century, he is talking about a vastly smaller number of persons killed, murdered, or maimed in the earlier era compared to the vast amounts of persons killed, murdered, or maimed in the 20th and 21st centuries. The unmistakable, unavoidable conclusion to this is that Pinker values a human life in any bygone era far above that of a human life in the modern era. By Pinker’s own logic, he doesn’t value contemporary lives as being of much worth at all, despite his claims to value human life. In reality, a human life has value regardless of what era a person lived in. Pinker can afford to sit in his comfortable armchair surrounded by like-minded (deluded) liberal friends who have gentlemanly and ladylike manners, enjoying an expensive glass of wine, and ignore such a consideration, which if he had a grain of honesty, he would have acknowledged to himself long before.

Pinker’s conclusion that we live in a less violent world than the peoples of past eras is totally false, and the only possible conclusion is that he is living in cloud-cuckoo-land.

His claim about the elimination of slavery would be laughable if it weren’t so tragically false. He said slavery is no longer legal anywhere. It’s legal in Qatar under the guise of sponsorship laws. It’s virtually legal in Uzbekistan, due to the government’s organization of forced labor in the cotton industry. There may be other countries where slavery is legal. It is also widely practiced in India. He gives no mention of the prevalence of child slavery, legal or not, in countries across the globe. And he gives no mention of sex slavery, which is on a sharp rise in “civilized” countries in Europe and in the USA. He also gives no mention of the virtual slavery endured by millions due to the global capitalists who have created the conditions whereby a wage slave will accept almost any horrific conditions due to the reason that otherwise he and his family will starve to death.

He talks about the abolition of torture. But he does not mention the resumption of the use of torture by the government of the United States, and the cast of grossly immoral and (literally) criminal lawyers who provided the pseudo-legal-justification to adopt cruel methods of torture not only at the prison in Guantanamo but also at a host of known “black sites” in Afghanistan (Salt Pit, AKA Cobalt, Code Black), Lithuania (Antaviliai, Code Violet), Romania (Bright Light, Code Black), Poland (Quartz, Code Blue), Thailand (Cat’s Eye, Code Green) and a secret site on the Guantanamo Naval Base, known as Strawberry Fields (Forever). http://anonhq.com/not-finished-yet-think-guantanamo-bad-nine-cia-black-sites-worse-torture-abuse-happened/ This information was freely available to Pinker, if he had cared to look for it. He didn’t. Since he is a citizen of the United States, he really should have looked.

He also does not mention any of the times that the rulers of the world in the 20th century came ever so close to blowing up the entire planet not just once (the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962) but 9 other documented times that folks don’t read about in the corporate-controlled newspapers. If this had come to pass, neither Pinker and like-minded “enlightened” intellectuals, nor any of the rest of us, would be around to discuss the topic in our cozy surroundings.

If Pinker thinks that literacy and our education in propaganda has created a more enlightened populace, that we more modern folks are any better judges of ourselves and the world than humans of past eras, then he is full of the most stercoraceous humbug ever pedaled to a gullible audience.

As Voltaire said (and Pinker quoted Voltaire as saying so), “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Pinker ought to reflect on the fact that this is precisely so if one takes at face value the absurdities promulgated by the global capitalists and their apologists, of whom Pinker is himself an example.

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Wed, 27 Dec 2017 04:00:52 +0000Editorhttps://thesydney.news/2017/12/27/corporate-anti-slavery/When one of the biggest food companies in the world, Nestle, found slavery in its supply chains in 2015 it made a public admission, a move praised by anti-slavery groups.

Nestle had launched an investigation a few months earlier after media reports alleged labourers in Thailand’s fishing industry were being brutally treated.

The company’s investigation found many of the workers were from Myanmar and Cambodia.

Some had been literally chained to Thai fishing boats. Some were physically abused. Most were paid little, if anything.

These workers supply much of the seafood that Nestle and other companies sell to consumers.

The chief executive of anti-slavery organisation The Freedom Fund, Nick Grono, told RN Breakfast he had recently been in Thailand and spoken to victims of the practice.

“We met with men who had been enslaved on fishing boats for six or eight years at a time, subject to horrendous violence,” he said.

“Men who had seen fellow crew members who were too ill to work thrown over the side.”

From the beginning of Nestle’s investigation, it has released its findings publicly, as well as the actions it is taking to fix the problem.

Margaret Stuart, the head of corporate affairs for Nestle Oceania, said her company was not alone in having sourced products that had been produced using slave labour.

“If you are sourcing fish from Thailand, then you have a problem,” she said.

“There are problems endemic throughout that industry in terms of abuses of human rights, and we’ve been steadily working on that over the past couple of years to try and put some remedies in place.”

‘Didn’t we abolish slavery in the 1800s?’

Modern slavery is a broad term, which involves a range of exploitative practices, including human trafficking, forced labour, wage exploitation, child labour and debt bondage.

Nick Grono said most people were surprised that slavery still existed.

“A lot of people will think, ‘Didn’t we largely abolish slavery in the 1800s?'” he said.

“The sad fact is that the latest estimates from the UN and the Walk Free Foundation are that there are about 40 million people around the world in slavery today.”

So how can a multinational company really know what is happening at every stage of its supply chain?

The mining industry has some of the most complex supply chains in the world.

Vanessa Zimmerman chairs the Human Rights Leadership Group for the Global Compact Network Australia — the world’s biggest voluntary corporate social responsibility initiative — and she is also the group human rights advisor at Rio Tinto.

“There was an example that was reported a year or so ago, in one of the shipping charters we were using, so our team in marine took steps immediately to speak to the captain, to speak to the company that owned that ship, to actually board the ship and look at the conditions there and insist on improvements straight away,” she said.

Alongside his daughter Grace, Mr Forrest founded the anti-slavery group Walk Free Foundation in 2011.

But he too has found modern slavery in the supply chains of his own mining company, Fortescue Metals Group.

“We got a suspicion that the labour welfare in the Middle East wasn’t up to the mark and we sent in a team to go and check it out and that’s when we discovered thousands of East Indian and Asian workers being treated much worse than you’d ever see a farm animal,” he told RN Breakfast in August.

Mr Forrest was able to use the evidence gathered by his team’s investigation to pressure the publicly listed company at the top of that supply chain to end the mistreatment of its workers.

“That company has since been impeccable in its labour standards,” he said.

UK laws urge supply chain disclosure

Modern slavery affects almost every industry, from agriculture and groceries to clothing, technology, and even fund managers and financial services, the very people investing in these businesses.

The United Kingdom has been leading the way internationally in creating transparency in supply chains.

In 2015 it introduced the Modern Slavery Act, a piece of legislation designed to improve efforts to fight slavery.

It requires companies to publish annual statements on their websites about the steps being taken to ensure slavery is not in their supply chains.

So, does Australia need its own modern slavery act?

This is what a parliamentary committee in Canberra has been investigating since February.

“Whether you’ve purchased a t-shirt or food … there is likely to be modern slavery in the supply chain,” said Chris Crewther, the federal member for Dunkeley and the chair of the Foreign Affairs and Aid Sub-Committee.

“We’ve seen for example in the past Sherrin footballs, there were cases of child labour the supply chain back in 2011. There is a person in my electorate who was essentially living in the wall of a brothel.”

His inquiry into establishing a modern slavery act received more than 200 submissions and held public hearings around the country.

The Government is considering whether it should adopt legislation similar to that in the UK.

But critics say the UK’s Modern Slavery Act does not go far enough.

There is no standard requirement for the information companies need to include in their statements, and there is no penalty for not reporting.

So far, only about 3,000 statements have been produced, out of the 12,000 UK companies that are supposed to be reporting on their supply chains.

Australia set for anti-slavery act and commissioner

The Australian inquiry released its final report in December, with 49 recommendations.

It proposes going further than the UK legislation and, so far, both business and NGOs seem to be satisfied.

“It’s not often that you will see businesses supporting new regulation and new requirements, but we’ve seen a lot of businesses come out and do that,” Vanessa Zimmerman said.

“They want to see a more level playing field between some of the so-called leaders and laggards in this space to really get all businesses doing the same type of action in these areas.”

The key recommendation from the inquiry’s report is to create a law that requires mandatory supply chain reporting for businesses, organisations and governments with more than $50 million in turnover.

Those statements should be held in a central database, and there should be a basic standard of what is required in the report.

Organisations that fail to produce a statement could be penalised.

“We’ve also recommended an independent anti-slavery commissioner to lead the charge in Australia on tackling modern slavery,” Liberal MP Chris Crewthers added.

Until the legislation is drafted — probably at the start of 2018 — it will be up to companies to guide themselves on investigating modern slavery, and up to consumers to ask questions about the supply chain before they buy.

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Fri, 22 Dec 2017 10:05:24 +0000St. Hilary'shttps://sthilarys.press/go/politics/modern-day-slave-trade-in-libya/The Libyan slave trade has been on since 2013 or even earlier. Since the removal of Muammar Gaddafi – whose senior daughter also had slaves – as the Leader of the nation, Libya has never been able to recover politically, economically and otherwise. It would be appropriate to refer to the Libyan State as it is today as a failed State. The American government had backed rebel groups in Libya that captured and killed the country’s erstwhile leader, Gaddafi in 2011. This has plunged the country into a political and social imbroglio.

With the inability of the new government in place to assert its authority in the country, many atrocities have taken centre stage around the country without fears of being caught and prosecuted. This has led to the emergence of a vibrant slave market spread across the vast country. Slaves are bought at $400 and are taken to work under inhumane conditions. Private prisons exist all over the country where slaves that are bought are kept and from there taken to their work stations.

There are over 400,000 to 1,000,000 people (migrants) now stuck in Libya. Yearly, in the last four years, 150,000 migrants cross the Mediterranean to Europe from Libya out of which 3000 die every year according to the international organization for Migration (IOM). The combination of poverty in Africa, the failure of the Libyan State, the fact that Libya is the main transit point for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea and the fact that there is a market for these slaves have fuelled the trade in slaves in this country. It is very clear at the moment that the buyers of these slaves are Arab Africans and Middle Eastern Arabs within Libya.

In a move that is considered plausible, the Rwandan government has offered to ameliorate the sufferings of these migrants trapped in Libya. Through its foreign ministry, Rwanda has provided asylum to 30,000 mainly Sub-Saharan migrants. It is expected that the governments of other African countries will take positive steps in assisting trapped migrants in Libya and also tackle illiteracy, poverty and unemployment in their countries being the major factors behind the huge migrant traffic.